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Stalker victim's mother: system has failed again
Rashid Razaq, Evening Standard4 Jun 2008
The mother of a woman shot dead by a stalker has launched an attack on the handling of the case of stabbed schoolgirl Arsema Dawit.
Tricia Bernal said the "system has failed" the 15-year-old, just as it had her own daughter Clare, 22, who was gunned down by an obsessive exboyfriend. The 52-year-old warned that other lives may be in danger, saying "It's time to stop talking and act. This demonstrates the need for places where families can go to feel safe."
Miss Bernal was killed in September 2005 while working at a perfume counter in Knightsbridge store Harvey Nichols. She had been stalked by Michael Pech, 30, despite a series of restraining orders. Pech, on bail for harassment after making a threat to kill, shot her four times in the head and then killed himself.
Ms Bernal, of Tunbridge Wells, and Carol Faruqui and Stella Moore, who lost daughters in similar circumstances, are launching a national charity to introduce family justice centres across Britain. The centres, one of which is in Croydon, house agencies who share information and can take immediate action should risk to a victim escalate.
For more information, contact CRT Trust, The Family Justice Centre, 69 Park Lane, Croydon CR0 1JD.
